What Will Be The Future?
by sheltis
Summary: A very sick Natsume is suddenly targeted by a powerful youkai. But the mental pain the ayakashi causes is much more painful than the physical pain... *Currently on hiatus, too busy to continue :( *
1. Season 1: Chapter 1

This is my first fan-fiction.

Disclaimer: Natsume Yuujinchou belongs to Midorikawa Yuki.

…..

It was coming. A huge shadow filled with despair and sadness slid silently and carefully across the old wooden hallway. It stopped in front of a shoji door. The door was opened without a single sound – and in front of it, a small, prone body of a boy exhaustedly sleeping –

It had come.

It had come for Natsume Takashi.

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"Ah! There!" Tanuma pointed, clutching his head. Natsume, with Nyanko-sensei and Natori-san, raced off to the place Tanuma was pointing at.

There recently had been a quite powerful ayakashi on the loose who was killing other ayakashi in grotesque ways. And when a little crying ayakashi showed him a decapitated head of his friend, Natsume couldn't help but agree to the little ayakashi's desperate plea. That plea was, of course, to please kill the ayakashi on the loose. However, since Natsume couldn't kill the ayakashi, he had reluctantly called Natori, who could seal it. Tanuma had just been on his way to Yatsuhara when Natsume and Natori burst out of the trees. He had demanded an explanation, and eventually, Tanuma was a part of the ayakashi-sealing plan.

It was a cold winter day, and Natsume could see his white puffy breaths in the air. He ran carefully, avoiding the snow-covered trees of the mountain. He felt it too, the sinister force of the evil ayakashi.

"Natsume! Take this." Natori, who was running beside him, gave him a small sealing pot. "Remember the plan, all right?" "Okay!"

Natsume could feel the butterflies fluttering inside his stomach, but he held onto the pot tightly. And suddenly, they had to stop.

They were in the shores of a huge, frozen lake, and at the end of the lake, the back of a huge ayakashi was visible. The ayakashi seemed like a shadow, formed of black mist, but red blood was dripping, plink plunk, off from him to the clear ice. But that wasn't what caught Natsume's attention. It was the massacre. Bloody corpses of ayakashi were strewn around the huge ayakashi. The sounds of an ayakashi being torn apart were still echoing through the air. It was a massacre. It was a blood bath. It was…cruel.

Nyanko-sensei scowled. "That one's gonna be a hard nut to crack."

Natori scowled with him. "The plan's not going to work."

The plan was for Tanuma, with the best spiritual energy sensitivity, to pinpoint the ayakashi's location, and then Natsume would lure it to where Natori was waiting, as always. Tanuma would stay out of danger in the trees. But in this situation, the ayakashi was too absorbed in his gruesome work to care about Natsume.

At least, that was what Natori thought.


	2. Season 1: Chapter 2

Thank you for reading this fanfiction. Thanks for all the reviews, favs, and follows.

*There are no pairings in this fanfiction, nor there will be.

Disclaimer: Natsume Yuujinchou belongs to Midorikawa Yuki-san.

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At least, that was what Natori thought.

And it was what the ayakashi wanted them to think. He would get hold of Natsume Reiko's grandson and present it to his master. _He_ would, before any other ayakashi stole his prey.

….

When Natori and Nyanko-sensei were squabbling over how to take action, Natsume was staring at the overwhelming back of the ayakashi. It was crouching over something…. And after a single blink, the ayakashi was staring at him.

The only difference between its back and its front were the eyes. They were also black, like the rest of its black, misty body; but the black of its eyes were more solid. They stood out against its body, black, solid orbs without any shine.

"Natori-san!" Natsume whispered, gasping. "Hmm?"

Natori and Nyanko-sensei looked up from their squabble and saw the ayakashi. They immediately went into battle mode.

"Natsume, this was a last resort, but in this case, I'll have to seal it without a kekkai to prevent its escape. So can you stop its movements, self-appointed bodyguard?" Natori asked with a low voice.

"Who do you think I am? Of course I can stop its movements." Nyanko-sensei replied, also with a low voice.

At that moment, the ayakashi very slowly raised an almost insubstantial misty arm, an absolute contrast to the speed before.

"It's coming." Nyanko-sensei growled.

From the misty arm, 5 misty fingers spread out. The forefinger curled in an unmistakable gesture of, "COME HERE."

Suddenly, Natsume was hurling through the air toward the ayakashi. It was as if he was being strongly pulled at the front and strongly pushed on the back at the same time.

He was going at an incredible speed, over the ice of the frozen lake and the blood of dead ayakashi, and straight into the clutches of the ayakashi.

It was probably only a few seconds. But it felt like time stopped, and it was an eternity.

He couldn't scream.

He couldn't think.

He couldn't breathe.

He could only see the raven blackness of the ayakashi – he was getting closer – and closer – then….

"Get your hands off my prey, you imbecile!" Madara roared, and back in his original inu-gami form, the sound of his roar was deafening.

Ice shattered. Natori, on top of Madara, covered both of his ears.

The ayakashi must have been surprised; Natsume, who was literally right in front of it, began to fall mid-air.

Natsume wasn't high up in the air, so he wasn't hurt when he fell onto an ice floe. But the ayakashi was looming over him. For one terrifying moment, Natsume stared into eyes of endless depth. He felt as if he was being sucked into those indefinable pools of black eyes. Then the moment was over. The unbalanced ice floe flipped, and the last thing Natsume saw before being sent into the water was Madara taking the black ayakashi in his mouth.

…

It was freezing, no, not simply freezing, but bone-freezing, paralyzingly cold.

Natsume flailed about in the water, unable to get his bearings. He was dimly aware of a voice calling his name through the water, but the cold sapped his strength. He couldn't even flail anymore. His thinking jumbled all together. His body registered the lack of oxygen. His brain didn't, and Natsume didn't realize he needed oxygen desperately. He just started to sink somewhat peacefully into the murky water.

Natori jumped off from Madara's back to the broken ice, as Madara took the ayakashi in his mouth and took it with him. He kneeled on the edge of a quite huge, safe-looking ice floe, and searched frantically for Natsume. He saw Natsume slipping into the water after the ice floe he was flipped. But now, he couldn't see Natsume through the dark water of the lake. Voice trembling slightly, he ordered one of his new shiki to find Natsume in the water. He had been startled, very startled in fact, when Natsume suddenly flew past him toward the ayakashi at an alarmingly fast speed. He felt genuine concern for Natsume, and he felt for the boy for his bad childhood experiences, so similar to his own.

Then Natori's shiki alerted him that she found Natsume and would be pulling him up to the surface, and he was pulled out of his thoughts. In a rational corner of his mind, Natori wondered why the ayakashi had not tried to eat or kill Natsume during the moment when Natsume was right in front of him. Instead, it had just started to envelop his arms around Natsume. A more urgent part of his mind pushed those speculations away for another time and worried about Natsume. He had been in the freezing water for at least 2 minutes, probably more. He also hadn't been breathing for that time.

His shiki emerged out of the water, carrying an unconscious Natsume princess-style and dripping freezing water. Natori's heart lurched with sudden dread.

"Natsume!" Natori hurriedly reached out for Natsume, and recoiled when he felt the horrible coldness of his skin. Natsume's face was deathly pale. His bangs were plastered on his pale face. And….

He wasn't breathing.

Natsume looked dead.


	3. Season 1: Chapter 3

Thank you guys for reading this fanfiction. You can't believe how happy I am when I see the reviews, favs and follows.

*There are no pairings in this fanfiction, nor there will be in the future.

(Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation does not count as a kiss, you hear?)

Disclaimer: Natsume Yuujinchou belongs to Midorikawa Yuki-san.

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_Natsume looked dead._

"Natsume! Wake up! Natsume!" Natori was panicking. He was kneeling beside Natsume, who was lying on his back on the cold ice.

Natori jostled and shook Natsume, but he wasn't waking up or showing any signs of stirring. He wasn't breathing, either.

Natsume's going to die.

This thought spurred Natori to larger panic. Natsume wasn't a youkai, who could heal or regenerate very quickly. On the other hand, he was a person, and a person who was _very _prone to illnesses at that.

He wasn't like his shiki, who could almost immediately heal from most wounds. Natsume could very easily die. He could die by something as simple as being in the cold water too long. He could die.

Hiiragi, who was next to Natori, hurried past her panicking master and put her ear against Natsume's heart. It was still beating, albeit very faintly and sluggishly, but beating nonetheless.

"Master, please calm down. Natsume's still alive. IF you carry out the emergency procedures, he'll be okay." Hiiragi urged her master. With a growing sense of worry, she noticed that Natsume's lips were now tinging blue. If Natori didn't snap out of it soon, Natsume would really die.

Urged by Hiiragi, Natori regained enough of his senses to remember the emergency measures, although he was still deeply in mindless panic.

He began to pump Natsume's chest, the seemingly calm pumps an absolute contrast to the inner turmoil of Natori's mind.

Pump in, pump out. Several pumps. Open airway, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. More pumps in, pumps out. Several pumps. Open airway, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. More pumps.

Natori went into autopilot mode, pumping and pushing breaths into Natsume's mouth. It was the only thing he could do right now.

Then he saw some colour returning into Natsume's face, and Natsume suddenly spluttered. Water came out his mouth, and he began to shiver violently. He took huge gulps of air as if his life depended on it, which in fact, did.

Relieved, Natori let out a huge breath he didn't realize he had been holding in. His panic slowly started to subside.

"Na…to..ri-san? I…..what…..cold….." Natsume said weakly, his mouth still a worrying bluish-red.

"Don't speak, Natsume. Just stay still." With a soft voice, Natori soothed him. He had to get Natsume warm, and far away from this freezing, open place where they were surrounded by huge chunks of ice that radiated cold.

Natori took off his thick coat, shivering a little in the cold, and bundled Natsume with it. He had passed out, head lolling. He continued to shiver, although a little less violently than before. He probably had hypothermia. Still, his colour was better than before, and he was breathing steadily. He no longer looked like a dead man.

Natori said in a low voice, "Hiiragi, take Natsume to Tanuma. Stay with him, and keep him warm."

"Yes, sir." Hiiragi replied. She gently gathered the still-shivering and unconscious Natsume in her arms and went, her robes billowing behind her. Soon she disappeared out of sight among the trees of the forest.

Natori watched her go. He was still a little worried about Natsume, but now, Natori could finally concentrate on sealing the ayakashi.

In the corner of his eye, he could see Madara coming back, luring the ayakashi to where Natori was.

Right on time, bodyguard, Natori thought.

He whipped out his charms and waited for Madara to stop the ayakashi's movements.

...

Tanuma was absolutely aghast when Hiiragi appeared with an unconscious Natsume in her arms.

When he got a closer look at Natsume, he was even more aghast than before. Natsume looked like a drowned rat, wet hair on closed eyes and water from hair slowly tracing his small face. His mouth was a slightly tinged blue, and his face was pale, although not too pale.

Hiiragi put him gently on the ground, Tanuma helping her.

"Master told me to keep him warm." Hiiragi told Tanuma.

"He probably has hypothermia." Tanuma worriedly replied, pushing Natsume's wet hair out of his eyes.

Although he had a coat around him that looked like Natori's, Tanuma doubted that Natsume would be able to raise his body temperature with only a thick coat.

"Hiiragi, can you get some blankets? It doesn't matter if you have to steal them." Tanuma urgently asked Hiiragi. Stealing didn't matter next to saving Natsume's life.

"Yes. I'll get them." Hiiragi replied, and off she went, leaving leaves and branches in her wake.

Tanuma turned his attention back to Natsume. He was still shivering, looking pitiful under the coat that covered his slim frame.

"What happened to you, Natsume? What were you trying to do?" Tanuma mumbled under his breath. He felt so useless, unable to help Natsume.

When Natori had told Tanuma to stay in the forest, out of danger, Tanuma had started to protest furiously. But Natori had cut him off sharply, though not unkindly.

"You can't help us. Your spiritual power isn't strong enough to bait this ayakashi, and you can't help me seal it, either." Natori had said.

Ponta had chimed in too, saying, "Yeah, you can't help us, you dolt. Just stay here."

Natsume had sent him a glance, but it was more of a Sorry, but please stay here glance rather than a Please, come with me glance.

Then Tanuma could do nothing but just watch them go. He had watched them run toward the ayakashi, to confront the ayakashi, and he had suddenly felt tears well up. Tanuma had felt as if the tears emphasized his uselessness, and he had let the hot tears fall to the ground, following his cheeks and dropping off his chin.

The feeling of uselessness increased evermore after seeing Natsume like this. Shivering, wet Natsume. Unconscious, hypothermic Natsume.

He wanted to help Natsume. But he couldn't. He couldn't. He couldn't. He was _useless._

Tanuma tightly closed his eyes.

"I'm useless….." Tanuma whispered to himself, again and again.

Stuck in his own misery, he didn't realize Natsume stirred, and Natsume's soft voice startled him.

"No, you're not useless, Tanuma."


End file.
